A Triathlon? This is All Jill’s Fault

Me, laughing: HELL NO! NO WAY. I did one in the 8th grade. I’m good. NO NO NO NO NO.

A couple of days ago in the car with my husband…

Me: So, I might train for a triathlon. Just a small one. I can use my mountain bike. No need to buy a new bike or anything.

*crickets*

Yes, I’ve done a triathlon. IronKids in the 8th grade. Do you not remember the picture of me in safety-cone-colored shorts with the fantastic piece of toast? Here, let me refresh your memory:

So, if I remember correctly, that race was like a 200-yard swim, maybe 5 miles on the bike (WHICH I HATED) and a mile run. I think. It wasn’t the best experience. I don’t think I trained for it (unless you count being on swim team and track). I probably rode my bike once before the race (the day we bought it).

But this Run Less Run Faster training has me going to the pool (or at least thinking about it) and riding the bike (twice is good, right?). And then there’s Jill.

That darn Jill (Running to Sanity) has got me thinking about it. She’s just so dang excited about the triathlon and, well, it’s a little contagious. I do like to swim. I do like to run. I’m beginning to enjoy the bike (just a little bit). And now she’s texting me about it, too!

What, let’s just say as a hypothetical, if I wanted to do a triathlon? Like a sprint one. Nothing fancy. Where would one look for a training plan for that sort of thing?

16 comments

This post cracked me up. Go for it….especially if you are thinking of trying a sprint, you could just show up and do that. However, if you would like to get a little bit more formal, then check out….. http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/

This is awesome! Remember our first run, where we met for the first time, we actually talked about doing a tri! And now…after each of us have run our first marathon (that we were training for on that run)…we will do a tri…together! This is going to be awesome!

Good for you for considering it! I did my first sprint last summer and now I’m hooked. I’m like you, good at swimming and running, so so on the bike. I’m actually buying a road bike for my next one in June. I used an app called 1stTimeTri on my iPhone. It worked well for me. Good luck!!

I think the best place to find all the local ones is racecenter.com you can search by date or location. If you have questions on what any of them are like, let me know. I have done most of them in this area! Can’t wait to see you out there!! YAY!!

Do it! I’m too chicken to do one so I want to read how training goes for you. I have a few triathlete friends who are trying to get me to do it…I just hate to swim. I only go in the pool to cool off. Anyways, good luck! and I can’t wait to read about it if you do!

To dip your toe into the water, there’s this really short triathlon at the Tacoma Y at the end of the month. 15 minutes in the pool, 30 minutes on your bike mounted onto a trainer, and 2.2 mile run outside. I hate, hate, hate riding a bike unless I can’t possibly crash into someone, so this is the only kind of tri I would attempt (someday, not this year). You might not like the indoor bike aspect. One of my running buddies is doing this event.http://trifreaks.com/TacomaRainManTri.aspx

My husband and I are training for a sprint triathlon and we are using the trinewbie 10 sprint training schedule and we really like it. I used it for the super sprint I did in May. It is very detailed and has lots of helpful hints. Here is the link to the training programs http://www.trinewbies.com/tno_trainingprograms.asp.

How excing!!! Which one would you train for? I’m also (kind of) doing RLRF and was thinking a triathlon wouldn’t be a big deal too since I’ve been swimming (just got out of the pool actually!) though I would need to bike more. Any amazing ones you’ve found that would get me on board?!?!

I think you should do it since you have a pal to do it with!! But I am pondering the same thing still because I looked to see how much a triathlon race fee is and the cheapest I found so far is $80…which seems like a lot for something I only kind of want to do.

How exciting. I love reading about people who are training for and competing in triathlons. I’m not a fan of water so I don’t know that I would ever think about doing one. I’m leaning more towards doing an ultra …